New Approach Oregon Announces Its Marijuana Agenda For 2016

After a busy year working with local and state agencies to legislate and implement regulation and legalization from Portland to Pendleton, New Approach Oregon is excited to continue our advocacy during the upcoming 2016 Oregon Legislature. We’re excited to share with you our priorities for the next few weeks in Salem:

Further victories on our Fresh Start Oregon campaign. Building on our nationally historic (and bipartisan) victories last summer, we’ll be working to continue to clear previous convictions to help Oregonians needlessly encumbered by petty pot convictions to gain easier access to education, employment and housing. We’ll also work to ensure that no additional criminal penalties are added or increased, and continue to demonstrate that a new, responsible, just era of drug reform is upon us here in Oregon.

Licensing reform to support local dispensaries. Regulations from 2015’s legislation deny small businesses the opportunities to serve both medical patients and recreational users. This has significant impact for many Oregon marijuana patients, who find it increasingly hard to obtain medicine because retailers find it cost-prohibitive to provide for them.

Making Oregon’s marijuana regulations work for patients. Prospective rules scheduled to go into effect on March 1st will end the ability of sick and disabled patients from registering in Oregon. Many patients from out of state need a grower to supply their medicine because the medical products they need are too expensive for them to purchase from retail stores, and the high taxes on these medical treatments often make them cost-prohibitive to working class Oregonians suffering from painful and life-threatening illnesses. We also want to ease regulations for Oregonians who wish to responsibly cultivate marijuana in their backyard.

Thanks to your generous support, we’re on our way to fundraising enough money to ensure our bustling organization can keep fighting for a thoughtful, consumer- and patient-oriented approach to marijuana policy that works for all Oregonians. Can you spare a donation today? As a Political Action Committee, any donation to New Approach Oregon up to $50 can be written off of next year’s taxes.

2 Comments

The Oregon medical patients have been able to obtain “free to the card holder meds” for years . The current changes will now monitize the production of mmj . Just about anybody can produce their owm meds , but many find that having a reputable grower that will keep them supplied for free is much better …
There are now 8 more patients looking for a grower in Oregon due to the new rules and regulations .

The sales for “medical” only are not enough to support normal business activity because patients demand higher quality products for schwag prices. Patients hardly ever put effort into purely medical use with maximal efficiency. Theyre goal is always 1-2oz a month for free at the cost of the grower.

There is a reason 20-50mg capsules of raw cannabis oil are virtually unheard of despite being more effective for pain vs smoking THC. The same goes for CBD products….they don’t sell. 1 oz of 20% THC pot is 1100 5mg doses. At 20mg, which is pretty high for most people, its 280 doses.

In fact, real medical stuff sells better on the rec market. This is true for all the vendors I’ve spoken to.

The volume of “medical” sales is approximately 10-20% of rec.

Maybe the Cannabis tax should be subsidizing these people…though I can’t imagine most Cannabis consumers being cool with that because soo many “medical” users are functional adults who are physically capable of growing their own average quality stuff.